Salary Or Lack Thereof !!!!!!!!

manettohillnurse · Dec 14, 2006

LPN90. You must have been a fly on the wall in my office !!!!!!! You are so correct about the "newbies" being the worst people to deal with. You are so on the mark when you say that these teachers need to tell a "frequent flyer" that they need to stay in school. Now I am not discouraging a teacher from sending children down to my office but when they recognize a pattern in a child who visits the nurse frequently, they need to contact the parent or I'm more than willing to do this for them. When I do call a parent about "a frequent flyer", they become abusive and trot right along to pick up their child for the slightest sniffle. Don't ever fondly imagine that you will please everyone, it's just not going to happen. DO remember that you are the one who has a right to be called a "professional" since you have to be relicensed every 3 years, teachers don't. I don't know about you, but I have to be recertified every year in the use of Epi-pens, First Response, and AED use. I don't want this to turn into a forum for teacher bashing, that is not my intent. I want respect for my extensive knowledge (44 years) my training, (I'm also a State Certified Midwife, English trained) and not to be expected to stay chained to my desk. I need to go to the copying machine and go to classrooms to observe certain children without being accused of not being available to children.

Thanks so much for letting me vent. I've had a particularly rough week.:chair:

Keepstanding, ASN, RN · Dec 14, 2006

Thanks Manettohill,

I do appreciate your support. Have a great day ! :saint:

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Dec 14, 2006

Oneof the ways Texas school nurses got an increase was thru TNA (chapter of ANA) helping legislators to pass bills regarding childhood intervention. For instance, there are initiatives on diabetes and other diseases that require teaching plans (similar to care plans!) and reporting to the state. Who better to do that but nurses? But nurses would not work for a pittance so their salaries had to be increased in order for the school districts to comply with state regulations. I believe they are understaffed and underpaid still, but making the school districts realize what is in it for them will give them incentive to pay better. They may think all you do is call parents when the kid has a temp. Maybe your professional organization needs to educate the school system in your state or your local area. Good luck.

jrussole · Dec 14, 2006

When my kids were little school nursing prn was good for me. I was able to keep an eye on them and be there to pick them up and drop them off, etc. The pay was terrible. The respect was also terrible. But I suppose you have to take the good with the bad in any given situation of work. At least, I could go home everyday and feel like I didn't miss out on anything with my children at the time. Most of all, I didn't have a babysitter telling me any "firsts" that the kids may have done that day. I was there, after school. I didn't have to leave at 6am and come home at 8pm while they were already for bed or asleep upon my arrival. I suppose its a trade off. If you can swing it financially. It worked for me when they were little.

manettohillnurse · Dec 15, 2006

This is in response to classicdame:

Unfortunately, the nurses in my school district are represented by the teachers unit. We recently negotiated a new contract and even though we had a nurse on the negotiating team, she was told NOT to put anything for the nurses before the School Board as the teachers were not prepared to go out on strike for the nurses !!!!!!!!!! Great support. If the teachers did not get what they wanted the nurses would have had to strike as we are a part of the teacher's union. Our School Board doesn't care about it's staff and I don't think that they know that we even exist. I have been trying for 5 years to get a walkie talkie so that if there is a playground accident or emergency, I can be reached quickly. Needless to say, I was turned down because our new library wanted to have purple carpeting and it had to be specially dyed to the tune of $15,000 dollars!!!!!!!!! Oh well onward and upward, another day another dollar if I'm lucky.

michigooseBSN · Dec 18, 2006

In Mass. the government recently passed law stating that school nurses are also professionals like teachers. This means tenure after 3 years and in my community as members of the teachers union we are on their pay scale. I am certified as an educator just like the teachers. I give and get professional respect from my peers in my school system. Maybe this is unusual, I don't know but I think this is a super job with excellent hours and excellent pay. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

manettohillnurse · Dec 18, 2006

You are certainly lucky !!!!!! I am in the same union as the teachers but we recently negotiated a 3 year contract and the nurses' demands weren't even allowed to be put in front of the board. After 22 years I'm at a salary of less than $50,000. Just to let you know that in New York teachers are not considered "professionals" because once having completed their degree that's it. Nursing is considered a true profession along with CPAs, Attorneys etc., because they require relicensing or have to do so many hours per year of courses that have to be signed off on. Don't get me wrong, teachers have a very hard job and I couldn't do what they have to do day in and day out, however in my district they are paid very handsomely.

manettohillnurse · Dec 18, 2006

Just to ask a question. Are you a school nurse-teacher? We used to have those but they retired them years ago in favor of having RNs with no teaching certification and hiring a health teacher to obviously teach health.

michigooseBSN · Dec 19, 2006

I am an RN BSN but in my district to be hired as a school nurse I have to be certified by the state as an educator. I do the usual teaching such as sex ed and hygiene only. Actually many years ago I taught student nurses in a diploma program but I've never been a regular school teacher.

edgwow · Jan 11, 2007

I love the work that I do at a handicapped school as a nurse, but I am $15,000 in debt for RN-BSN and still need another 6 grand per semester and 3-4 semesters in Graduate school to get my cetificate to work in NJ. I wish I could move where the requirements for school nurses in public schools were not so stringent. Previous peds experience doesn't count when looking for a school nurse job, only the almighty, Certificate of School Nursing. I resent the exorbinant cost that have to incur to make this dream to be a school nurse in NJ come true.I hope that by the time I am done going to school, I can find a school nurse job in a public school and pay off my student loans before I die. I started going back to school at aged 39.

manettohillnurse · Jan 12, 2007

This is for edgwow. I really admire you for going back to school @39, not that that is old by any standard. I would suggest that you move to Plainview, NY as we don't need certification in school nursing. Anybody who does apply to be a sub. (forget a permanent position, most of us have been here for 22 years!!!!!!!) has to have camp or school nurse experience only. Keep going, I admire your tenacity.

Sylvia :typing

edgwow · Jan 12, 2007

Dear Sylvia,

Thanks for the encouraging words. When I started back at school, my husband who is also an RN became a little jealous , so he is now going back to school at 43 years old to get his BSN.

High Ho , High Ho, it's off to work we go, we keep on singing all day long , student loans, I owe! Betty